155. Martin Sherwin Gambling with Armageddon: Nuclear Roulette from Hiroshima to The Cuban Missile Crisis, 19451962

Published: Feb. 2, 2021, 8 a.m.

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In episode 155, Dr. Shermer speaks with Martin Sherwin, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer, about his new book Gambling with Armageddon, the definitive history of the Cuban Missile Crisis and its potential for nuclear holocaust, in a wider historical narrative of the Cold War \\u2014 how such a crisis arose, and why at the very last possible moment it didn\\u2019t happen. Luck, coupled to reason and diplomacy, saved the world from thermonuclear war. As existential threats go, a nuclear exchange is second to none. Understanding how we dodged Armageddon in 1962 is vital for the future of humanity. This conversation explores those themes and more.

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